Idea for Astrophotography beginners

[introspheric]

Hi guys, just introduced myself in a new topic in the Welcome section but just thought I might add my two cents in here aswell. 

At the moment I'm still learning about telescopes and reciting my M numbers, I use binoculars for observing at the moment, but love the idea of astro imagery and can't wait to get stuck in when I'm ready. A good way for beginners like myself to have a little go (with state of the art technology no less), is through the Bradford Robotic Telescope. I'm sure some of you will have heard of it, apologies if this has been mentioned before!

It's great for astronomers of all levels and you can get some cracking results from it.

Note for beginners: setting your exposure times and trying to pick which filters are best might seem a little daunting, but with a standard account (£3 a month) you can submit up to 10 different attempts (or 'jobs') at a time so just fiddle around and see what comes back the best until you start to get the hang of it! There's some guidelines on the website and I do believe there's a forum too, but you might need to upgrade your account to use it. Don't forget to keep up with your book reading too. Read, read, read. 

There are three different telescopes in Tenerife that you can use depending on what you want to observe and there's a gallery of images that other users have captured which you can freely look through and even rate them. Get a high enough rating and your image might be featured on the website!

I love the buzz of getting the email through that one of my jobs has been completed and there's a very basic image processing feature on the website aswell, you get to download the photo and keep it (or save it for further processing if you wish), it keeps all the data relating to what date and time the image was taken etc, I just think it's really fun and might keep the interest momentum going for some frustrated beginners.

www.telescope.org

My profile picture is a photo that I took of Saturn a few weeks ago using this website, and below is a picture I took of M31, The Andromeda Galaxy, imaged at 05:05am on 29/07/2014. Sometimes you have to be patient with your jobs because the telescope picks out the jobs in the queue as opposed to who asked first, but it's worth it! If you've used this website and love it, I'd love to see your photos! Post them for us all to WOW over!   

[PeterCPC]

I have been using the Tenerife telescope for a while now and love being able to image when you can't yourself for whatever reason. You should have said that all images are copyright of Bradford university - they are not supposed to be published anywhere without that acknowledgement.

Image Copyright

Images taken with the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project are the property of the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project. Copyright remains with the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project. Anyone may re-publish Bradford Robotic Telescope images on other web sites or in print providing that a reasonable copyright notice attributing the image to the Bradford Robotic Telescope is on the image or very close to it.

Peter

[swag72]

Just my opinion, but I don't see this as personal astrophotography. To me this is more akin to just practicing processing on someone else's data. If you want to do that then there are plenty of people who will make some data available if you ask.

[gingergeek]

I thought you can download raw data from the hubble legacy archive although finding the right raw subs may be as easy as you expect. An associated site show how to process hubble data (http://hubblesite.org/get_involved/hubble_image_processors/) but you would probably still need to attribute the source and it's just good manners to be honest to do so.

[ollypenrice]

I think that a resource of amateur data such as a new imager might hope to collect would, though, be a good idea. I'd be happy to donate some. A forum sticky, perhaps?

Olly

[glowingturnip]

At the moment I'm still ...  reciting my M numbers,

haha, it's not just me then !  I'm forever seeing references on the forum to, say, M27 and having to google it - 'ahhh, the dumbell nebula, well why didn't you say' !

Is it just me though, but that Andromeda pic (note to self, M31) seems to have a bit of trailing and chromatic aberration, and I'm not entirely convinced about the focus either...

[daz]

I think that a resource of amateur data such as a new imager might hope to collect would, though, be a good idea. I'd be happy to donate some. A forum sticky, perhaps?

Olly

We've seen this request a few times now, so I've raised it with my fellow admins to see how best we could do.

[introspheric]

I have been using the Tenerife telescope for a while now and love being able to image when you can't yourself for whatever reason. You should have said that all images are copyright of Bradford university - they are not supposed to be published anywhere without that acknowledgement.

Image Copyright

Images taken with the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project are the property of the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project. Copyright remains with the Bradford Robotic Telescope Project. Anyone may re-publish Bradford Robotic Telescope images on other web sites or in print providing that a reasonable copyright notice attributing the image to the Bradford Robotic Telescope is on the image or very close to it.

Peter

Indeed! I agree. Though, my intent wasn't necessarily for entering the photos into competitions and things...more for maybe keeping your own album on your computer to get you started or making a fun album on Facebook to share with your friends list. I suppose a watermark would be the right thing to do wherever you repost the images but I personally don't since I'm mainly keeping them to myself and if I am uploading any somewhere, I'll explain that it's from the BRT and all the rest of it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm 110% all for acknowledging the due credit. 

[introspheric]

Just my opinion, but I don't see this as personal astrophotography. To me this is more akin to just practicing processing on someone else's data. If you want to do that then there are plenty of people who will make some data available if you ask.

I suppose it is a matter of opinion like you say. For me, if I borrow my friend's camera and take some pictures that I'm quite proud of, I feel like I can rightfully call them 'my' pictures since I took them. I think it's just a matter of how you see it personally.

[introspheric]

haha, it's not just me then !  I'm forever seeing references on the forum to, say, M27 and having to google it - 'ahhh, the dumbell nebula, well why didn't you say' !

Is it just me though, but that Andromeda pic (note to self, M31) seems to have a bit of trailing and chromatic aberration, and I'm not entirely convinced about the focus either...

Haha, you're probably right! This was only the third ever job I received back from the telescope so I wasn't expecting something quite like this, in both good and bad ways. I am quite proud of it though considering I'm largely playing it by ear until I really get going and properly know what I'm doing. Neptune was much harder to get right and I still don't have it right...put some job requests in for a couple of comets though (PANSTARRS and Lovejoy), think I'm looking forward to those than my nebulae submissions but will probably have to wait a long time for them!

As for M numbers...tell me about it. I haven't even got started on NGC yet...ssshhhhh...nobody heard that.

[glowingturnip]

you can fix the chromatic aberration in post-processing to some extent, and it would help wih the roundness of your stars too, but it's a bit involved, depending what software you're using - you'd need to separate the channels into separate R, G and B, align them (but not stack them) and then recombine RGB

[wuthton]

I think that a resource of amateur data such as a new imager might hope to collect would, though, be a good idea. I'd be happy to donate some. A forum sticky, perhaps?

Olly

I think this is an excellent idea.

Following workflows/tutorials when you are first starting out is an exercise in frustration. They are easy to follow with excellent data but just don't apply to what a beginner has to work with.

I'm sure many of us can remember trying to process those early subs which were poorly focused, over/under exposed and the only defining feature being the spectacular level of noise you've managed to capture.

[ronin]

Looked at the pages of images on the Bradford site and really someone needs to go and service the scope. Equally £3 a month is negliable.

That is a good image of M31, but my question is: Is it M31 ?

Sorry but it doesn't resemble really anything I have seen that is M31, my first thought was an eliptical galaxy.

The image is good, just not what I expected for M31.

I also see that M31 and M42 are the most common on the Bradford scope.

As to creating a library of images here, that means a lot of data. Also the number of images will be large, people will load up their first image ever, immaterial of good/bad/indifferent. If someone has a question then it gets put in for others to possibley process and some will just put up every image they take. I doubt that SGL really has the memory capacity for an image archive.

Thre is I suppose aptforum.com that is more direct for AP.

[introspheric]

Looked at the pages of images on the Bradford site and really someone needs to go and service the scope. Equally £3 a month is negliable.

That is a good image of M31, but my question is: Is it M31 ?

Sorry but it doesn't resemble really anything I have seen that is M31, my first thought was an eliptical galaxy.

The image is good, just not what I expected for M31.

I also see that M31 and M42 are the most common on the Bradford scope.

As to creating a library of images here, that means a lot of data. Also the number of images will be large, people will load up their first image ever, immaterial of good/bad/indifferent. If someone has a question then it gets put in for others to possibley process and some will just put up every image they take. I doubt that SGL really has the memory capacity for an image archive.

Thre is I suppose aptforum.com that is more direct for AP.

I hope that it's M31, haha, it probably just looks skewed beyond normal recognition because I still don't have any idea what I'm doing...just meddling and seeing what comes back! As you do. And that's a good point about the memory capacity on SGL, I hadn't thought of that. Just an idea I thought I'd throw out there anyway.

[glowingturnip]

I also see that M31 and M42 are the most common on the Bradford scope.

<googles M42....   Doh !>

[Astrosurf]

Interesting thread.

Yep, M31's core.

Alexxx

[ollypenrice]

People have different attitudes to capture as I see as a provider. I'm happy to respect all these points of view.

My own is that good capture tends to be more expensive than difficult!

Fortunately two friends share this view and have provided gear to make these rigs a reality. We share the data. What is there to the capture stage? Buying good mounts, getting PA about right, plugging the cables in the right holes, framing and focusing. It doesn't take long to learn that.

But a lifetime isn't long enough to learn how to get the best out of your data in the processing. That's the hard part and, for me, the interesting part. I spend far more time, professionally, on that than on anything to do with capture.

Olly

[RichM63]

I really wish there was a public data archive, but the file sizes for RAW data would be immense.

My steam powered Orange Internet connection would make sending a carrier pigeon down to Olly a more reliable method for delivery. (gives me an idea though).

Even using an off forum hosting site would preclude most data archives with a file limit of 250MB.

Maybe a locked forum section carrying a popular target, complete with all the standard data although minimized by quantity could be made available for download, to help folk who want to get started but are unable to capture their own data for processing.

I doubt that would bomb the forum servers any more than the existing system.

[Christopher Davenport]

+1 for a sticky for sharing data for all to learn to process.

Each person could host their data on DropBox or similar

http://www.thetop10bestonlinebackup.com/data-storage

I have 50GB available in the public cloud and 1TB private cloud (NAS drive) connected to the internet.

Seeing as we are sharing opinions on image ownership, I will voice mine:

In my humble opinion, I can only lay claim to a image if I did every part of the process, from set-up to publish.

If I borrow equipment, then the image is still mine, but I still want to do every aspect from capture to publish.

Edit: But this has everything to do with my ego as I want to own every aspect of a image so I can feel proud of every aspect.

[laser_jock99]

But a lifetime isn't long enough to learn how to get the best out of your data in the processing. That's the hard part and, for me, the interesting part. I spend far more time, professionally, on that than on anything to do with capture.

Olly

That's true- a weekends worth of data can take me two weeks to process. The 'final image' never is the final image- you just can't afford to spend any more time on it......

[ollypenrice]

That's true- a weekends worth of data can take me two weeks to process. The 'final image' never is the final image- you just can't afford to spend any more time on it......

Indeed. My files have names that go from LRGB P (for processing) 1 through to about 15.

Then I get to LRGB Final. Phew.

Then we Have Final 1 to Final 2,316.   

 lly

[m37]

What's that expression about works of art never being finished, only abandoned?

Seriously though, the picture with the tandem mounted Taks is bordering on obscene. I felt compelled to censor it a bit in case there are minors present 

[ollypenrice]

What's that expression about works of art never being finished, only abandoned?

Seriously though, the picture with the tandem mounted Taks is bordering on obscene. I felt compelled to censor it a bit in case there are minors present 

censored.jpg

Ya Boo, you missed a Tak!!!

lly

[neonblade]

Thanks for the link. Reminds me of one of the most exciting moments I had in my early days of using a computer, moving a radio dish on the other side of the world via 2400bps dial-up modem.